In New York, the Rangers laid yet another egg on this season.
On Thursday night, the visiting Nashville Predators broke out to a 4-0 lead in the second period and routed New York, 4-1.
Cole Smith scored twice in the first period to give the Preds a 2-0 lead.
“Besides the goal part, just being able to contribute for the guys here and to finally bury one on a breakaway felt good,” Smith said. “Any time you can put one in the back of the net, help the guys out and get a good start like that, it’s good.”
Really, the game was over at that point.
The Predators went 2-for-4 on the power play.
“It was good, really good,” Predators captain Roman Josi said. “I mean that’s a really good team and I felt like we were pressing the whole game. First and second certainly played really well and then got some penalty trouble, but I felt like everyone, the whole team, it was a complete team game. The power play scoring two is huge, but I thought 5-on-5 too we were aggressive, didn’t give them a lot of room. Such a fast and skilled team but we played them really well.”
Juuse Saros made 24 saves in the win.
Adam Fox scored a so what in the middle frame to make the score 4-1 headed to the third. The strike came off the power play.
“You could see he was pressing it a little bit earlier and his timing was probably off for him, and that happens,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “Him and (Josi) missed a big chunk of time at the end of last year and then they come in and it’s hard to get your rhythm back, your cadence. Game by game they’re getting better. They’re elite players in this league and I expect them to continue improving.”
Ryan O’Reilly scored off the power early in the second period to stretch the Nashville lead to 3-0.
“All around it wasn’t good enough to win a hockey game,” New York captain Jacob Trouba said. “Even if somehow you find a way to win that game, that’s not a game I felt we deserved to win at all. Definitely our worst game of the season so far to this point. So, address it. We don’t want a repeat of this thing. We all saw it, we know what it feels like, address the issue and play better hockey. Learn from the experience.”
Ya think?
The Rangers allowed eight, count them, eight odd man rushes.
“You’re just not going to find success unless you button that up,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “That’s something we’ve been talking about, something that needs to be addressed, something that is on topic every day when we go into a game to eliminate the high risk and to eliminate the standing at the offensive blue line. We had the problem against Columbus as well (5-3 loss on Saturday). I thought we gave up too much. But in Columbus we competed hard. We attacked the net hard. Tonight is different for me because there are a lot of components and aspects of the game that aren’t good enough, that are missing.”
Filip Forsberg embarrassed the Rangers’ unit on the ice with mediocre skating exhibition that baffled them.
“It’s been a while,” Forsberg said. “There’s been some chances for sure, but I’ve been playing decent hockey, creating chances and if you keep doing that usually they do come.”
He skated in on the net and shot back across the grain for a 4-0 lead.
You can change coaches every week, and you are going to get the same New York Rangers.
Igor Shesterkin surrendered four goals, and made just 14 saves into the second period before thankfully getting the hook.
Jonathan Quick entered the game with six minutes left in the middle frame. He made nine saves in a mop up role.
“The process wasn’t there the whole night,” Rangers forward Chris Kreider said. “Just got beat, flat out.”
Well then, do something about it!
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